How often KAY/O was used compared to other VALORANT agents in Challengers 2

The VALORANT Champions Tour Challengers 2 qualifier was the first time teams in North America were able to pick KAY/O, the game’s newest agent. When KAY/O first released, players expressed a range of opinions on the new agent, with some saying this would be one of the most powerful agents in the game and a must-pick.

“Definitely I think [KAY/O] will be a top-tier pick because looking at his kit it’s actually kind of like classic tactical shooter, Counter-Strike style,” Tyson “TenZ” Ngo said in a recent episode of Nerd Street’s Esports Meta podcast.

XSET’s Brendan “BcJ” Jensen also mentioned KAY/O’s powerful potential in an episode of Esports Meta.

“I’ve played him and he seems really powerful in the current meta. A lot of teams are hard-anchored into the site right now, and if you throw that knife it just silences the entire bomb site,” he said.

Neither Sentinels nor XSET played during Challengers 2 because they were already qualified for Challengers Playoffs, but looking at the teams that did play, here are some takeaways on KAY/O’s usage.

KAY/O’s low pick rate

Finding detailed pick rates for the Challengers 2 open qualifier isn’t easy, and with the sheer amount of matches (124) and maps (275), I was not going to try to manually figure out KAY/O’s pick rate. However, with only 36 maps played across 14 matches during the closed qualifier this past weekend, I was able to manually determine KAY/O’s pick rate for those games.

If you watched any of the action this weekend, you won’t be surprised that KAY/O was only picked four times. That translates to a 5.5% pick rate based on either team being able to pick him across 36 maps played.

With so much hype surrounding KAY/O’s potentially powerful kit, it’s somewhat surprising he was among the lowest picked agents. KAY/O seems to have been picked more by some teams during the open qualifiers, but none of the teams picking him frequently made it to the closed qualifier.

While it is difficult to determine exactly why KAY/O’s pick rate was so low, it could be that he is not as useful as some initially thought, or the amount of time teams have had to practice with him.

It’s possible KAY/O will have a higher pick rate during Challengers Playoffs as a result of the four teams that qualified through Challengers 1 having more time to practice with him during these past couple weeks. Based on comments from TenZ and BcJ, Sentinels and XSET might be more likely to pull out KAY/O.

Other agent pick rates

Not surprisingly, Sova and Jett were the two most frequently picked agents. Sova had a 69% pick rate during the closed qualifier, and Jett was at 68%. These were the only two agents approaching a 70% pick rate. The North American VALORANT meta has favored these two for quite some time now. Jett is a favorite among the most skilled duelists like TenZ, Andrej "babybay" Francisty and Matthew "Wardell" Yu, and Sova is almost a must-pick for the initiator role.

The next highest tier of agents this weekend included Astra, Viper, Skye, Killjoy and Raze. Each of these agents was picked roughly between 40-60% of the time during the closed qualifier.

Viper might not have been meta during the early days of the VALORANT Champions Tour, but since Stage 2, Viper walls have been a ubiquitous feature in NA VALORANT games. Before KAY/O, Astra was the newest agent, and she quickly became a popular pick.

The next tier of agents picks this weekend included Cypher, Sage, Omen and Reyna, each picked between 14-32% of the time. Below that is the tier of pick rates like KAY/O's. Brimstone, Yoru, Breach and Phoenix all had similar pick rates of less than 10%.

Who used KAY/O most?

Of the four picks the entire weekend, Gen.G picked KAY/O three of those times, so clearly they made an effort leading into the closed qualifier to use him. The fourth and final KAY/O pick was made by the Kansas City Pioneers in their first-round match against Luminosity Gaming.

Gen.G’s Nicholas "NaturE" Garrison actually broke the record for most kills on a single map using KAY/O this weekend. He amassed 49 kills on KAY/O in the epic 44-round OT game against TSM. He broke the record of 48 that was set just a few weeks ago by 100 Thieves’ Peter “Asuna” Mazuryk in a 36-round match.

Using stats via VLR.gg, you can see KAY/O’s usage during the Challengers 2 open qualifier. Ghost Gaming’s Ryan “ryann” Welsh used KAY/O more than any other player. He used KAY/O for 145 rounds across 10 maps. Ghost lost to FaZe in a qualifying match for the closed qualifier. If Ghost had beaten FaZe then we probably would have seen a lot more KAY/O this weekend. NRG’s ANDROID and DarkZero’s Screwface were the other two players who used KAY/O for over 100 rounds during the open qualifier.

The player with the highest Average Combat Score on KAY/O was Taipan Esports’ Dream. He had an ACS of 294 on him, however, that’s across only 35 rounds. Ryann, ANDROID and Screwface each had a strong ACS of 199 or higher on the agent. Cloud9’s Xeppaa is another player who used KAY/O pretty frequently during the open qualifier. He had an ACS of 202.6 on KAY/O across 86 rounds.

Lead image credit: Riot Games